


Ice

by Elizabeth Culmer (edenfalling)



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Character Study, Death Eaters, Gen, Jossed, POV First Person, Post - Order of the Phoenix, Pureblood Culture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2004-09-08
Updated: 2004-09-08
Packaged: 2018-02-21 08:39:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,164
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2461880
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/edenfalling/pseuds/Elizabeth%20Culmer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>If I tell you my name, you'll think one of three things.  He's one of those evil Slytherins.  He and Potter hate each other.  His father's a Death Eater locked up in Azkaban.</p>
<p>Notice how you didn't think anything about <em>me</em>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ice

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this story because I didn't feel like revising a completely different story, and was still in my phase of experimenting with first-person narrators. It doesn't quite mesh with later canon, though I could probably handwave that as a case of Draco's expectations as stated herein failing -- dramatically and painfully -- to agree with the reality of Voldemort's madness and disregard for his followers. Still, it was a fun little exercise.

If I tell you my name, you'll think one of three things. He's one of those evil Slytherins. He and Potter hate each other. His father's a Death Eater locked up in Azkaban.

Notice how you didn't think anything about _me_.

What I hate -- what I hate more than anything -- is that nobody ever sees me. They see my father, my money, Umbridge, the Dark Lord, Professor Snape -- everything around me, but not me. If they do see me, all they see is that I hate Potter. And of course he hates Potter, they think. Potter's good and he's a spoiled, slimy, evil bastard. Oh, don't be ashamed. I know you thought that too.

So I happen to think the world would be a better place if we kept Mudbloods down. So I happen to think the Weasel's a self-righteous idiot. So I happen to think Potter's a self-absorbed git who really needs to be taken down a few hundred notches. So I happen to think the Dark Lord has some good ideas. That doesn't mean I'm evil.

And for the record, my mother and father have a perfectly stable marriage and I was born nearly five years after the wedding. I am not a bastard.

Mudbloods are a danger to us. They're a nightmare waiting to happen, the way they cling to their Muggle lives and families. You'd think Potter would realize that, considering what we know about his Muggle home. You'd think he'd realize that witch-hunts aren't just a joke, aren't just Wendelin the Weird letting herself get burned for the thrill of it. These days Muggles have weapons that can kill us before we even know they're near, poisons that can ride the wind through any confounding charm or illusion.

I know these things. I've always known them. I've never been able to figure out how Weasley doesn't, considering how much his father dotes on Muggle things. I can excuse Granger because of her background, I suppose, and maybe Potter as well -- he might as well be a Mudblood in some ways. It's a disgrace what he doesn't understand about being a wizard.

I'm a scion of the Malfoys and the Blacks, two of the most ancient and respectable families in England. We were lords before the Ministry and the Wizengamot decided to shut the Muggles out. My duty is to uphold the family legacy, to be a credit to the line. I've always know that. And to uphold the family legacy, I have to know what we stand for. Let me explain it to you in short words, just to be certain you understand me.

First of all, we're wizards. This means we have the ability to use magic. People shouldn't be ashamed of their abilities, and we're not ashamed of ours. We don't hold with the division of magic into Dark Arts and Light Arts. Magic is magic, and what makes any spell or potion good or evil is the purpose of the caster, not the spell itself.

Would you condemn a woman for stabbing a rapist with a knife? Then why condemn her for using the Killing Curse?

Hypocrisy is an ugly thing to confront in yourself, isn't it.

Second of all, we're lords. Oh, we don't use the titles these days, just as we don't consider ourselves subjects of the Muggle queen, but the lines of Malfoy and Black are ancient and honorable. The Dark Lord is the heir to the line of Slytherin, which was the oldest line of the four Founders. The line of Malfoy originates in Normandy less than a hundred years past the Founding of Hogwarts, and the line of Black is even older, though not always under that name.

We are the aristocracy of our world. We're the ones who know history, who know power, and who maintain the traditions. We're the ones who support the Ministry, who contribute to St. Mungo's, whose investments maintain businesses in all the magical sections of Britain.

Forgive me if I occasionally act as though my family matters.

Thirdly, we respect the old ways. We still believe that family matters, that there should be order in the world, and that it's any man's right what magic he chooses to cast in the privacy of his home. We believe in the rule of law as established by our forefathers, and the old rights of the code duello. We believe that the safety of wizards is paramount, and that order must be maintained in relations among the various nonhuman magical peoples.

So yes, I have House Elves. I'm not fond of centaurs and goblins, but I respect their rights and keep out of their way, so long as they accord me the same respect and don't expect me to treat them like wizards.

And by now I'm sure you're staring blankly ahead and wondering, "Just who is this person claiming to be Draco Malfoy? Isn't he an impatient, spoiled brat who wouldn't know respect if it bit him in the arse?"

Well, yes, I suppose I am at that. If I don't like you, I feel I have the right to insult you. Just as I feel you have the right to insult me in return -- for which I have the right to denounce you and make you suffer for the rest of your miserable life. I'm a Slytherin, after all.

Besides, I already have family ties in the right places. Hogwarts is where young wizards are _expected_ to act like selfish idiots, and acting on my impulses -- baiting Potter, lording it over my house, being outspoken to the point of madness on the Dark Lord's propaganda -- well, it's _fun_.

I'm fifteen. I can't be expected to live up to everything in my family lineage all at once.

I'm certain I'll be initiated into the Dark Lord's party soon enough, and while I have some reservations about his methods and ultimate goals, in the short term his plans mesh well enough with the Malfoy position on Mudbloods and other political issues.

What, you thought my father was his devoted servant? Ha. I'll thank you to notice that in the years the Dark Lord spent lurking around Central Europe as a second-rate ghost, my father was appointed to the Hogwarts Board of Governors and got the ear of Minister Fudge. We may have moved more slowly toward our ends without the Dark Lord's presence, but Malfoys always get there in the end. Blacks do as well.

Yes, my father's in Azkaban now. He'll be released. The Dark Lord knows how to reward his supporters, and he has a war to win.

And when he wins -- when the Dark Lord rules Britain and we hold his ear -- first I'm going to spit on Potter's grave, just because I can. Then I'm going to make sure everyone knows who I am, knows me for my own goals and my own victories. Because I'm a Malfoy. And what I want, I get.


End file.
